Beautiful isn’t she? The photo was taken in the late 1930’s and has only the inscription, “Love Ngaire”, on the back in very elegant long-hand.
In fact the whole thing seems rich, from the hair to makeup, dress and wrist watch. She must have been fairly well off because this is very much an artist’s portrait on camera and his name is embossed on the print, Brandon Haughton of Hawera in Taranaki. I’ve found a number of links for his photos with some biographical information (b 1882, d 1947) but not much else:
- Museum of New Zealand
- The Puke Ariki Collection.
- Early New Zealand Photographers
- Museum of South Taranaki.
The photo has been kicking around the family archives for decades but I can’t match it to any relatives and I only found it years after Mum and Dad died. I was inspired by this recent story out of Canada:
Kelly Brown, a member of the Aurora post of the Royal Canadian Legion, sat at her home last week in shock: staring at what appeared to be a black-and-white photograph of her grandparents smiling out from the inside of a locket; the subject of a post on Facebook.
Perhaps I’ll have the same luck.
No Minister 
Good luck with it. A number of years ago I went on a mission to find out as much as I could about relatives that served in WW1, one in particular. All I had was his picture that had been sent to me unexpectedly one ANZAC day.
I got his war records and as an officer a certain amount of information was given about where he received a fatal gun shot wound (everyone seemed to be listed as GSW whether they were or not. I guess it sounded nicer then “blown to pieces by artillery”)
Anyway, one night with nothing better to do I went on a detective hunt, with just a few clues, like the name of a farm that was given as a reference to the location of his death. A few hours and an email conversation with an amazingly helpful guy in Belgium later, I was able to pin point the spot really accurately . He lived on the farm still and had a small war memorial museum there.
A year later a friend was in Belgium, went to the spot, and laid a poppy down in his memory. He sent me the picture which I still have.
I hope you find the lady in the picture. It’s nice to remember people.
Two likely candidates are Ngaire Kathleen Landers of Hawera who remained single till at least 1955 when her father died. The other is Ngaire Adriane Edith Hotter from Hawera but worked in Opunake. She married in 1941.
Thanks. I’ll also be in contact with you about the photo, as I assume you’d like a copy for your online collection?